Page 18 of Resurgence of the Pack

I waited for a moment but Nina didn’t go on. ‘Well?’ I asked impatiently. ‘What happened? What happened to Lochlan?’

Oh. Well.I felt her grimace.One of his rivals in his pack used his new air power to kill him.

I gaped. ‘That’s not supposed to happen! Where was his happy ever after? What happened to his child? Did it survive?’

It did not get through labour. Mother and babe were killed before it could be born lest it had an affinity for the Sea Rock like Lochlan.

‘That is horrendous,’ I muttered, folding my arms.

‘What?’ Sara asked, eyes curious. I quickly recounted the horrifying story. When I finished, she merely snorted. ‘Figures. Some other asshole was a greedy alpha.’

Evidently so. It was a timely reminder that I needed to be on guard and to watch who I trusted. Not everyone got their happily ever after. And I wanted mine, dammit.

‘Okay, so we know about the orb’s origins – loosely – but what about how it was lost? When did it get taken?’ I asked.

The walls shook as Nina’s agitation grew.It was after the Great Pack had been ripped away from us all. It was like my eyes were stolen from me. It took me a long time to adjust butat the time, in my pain and agony, I wasn’t focusing on the orb. I didn’t see it taken, didn’t notice the intruder.

All was in disarray. My despair was complete. I could no longer speak to the wolves in my care, nor could they speak to me. I was alone and scared. My eyes were inward, and that’s when they struck.She gave a small sob.I should never have taken my eyes off of the orb. Of course, that’s when—She broke off and cleared her throat.

‘When what?’

Nothing,she said quickly.Nothing happened after the theft. It was business as usual.

She was keeping something from me and she may as well have been whistling loudly for all her subtlety. I let it slide; I’d try and get the information out of her another day but for now my focus was on the orb.

I reached out, touched Nina’s amaranth-red walls and stroked them lightly. ‘I’m sorry you went through all that. That was horrible, but you can’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault, Nina. Whoever took the orb attacked you at a time when you were most vulnerable.’ I bit my thumb as I thought. ‘It can’t have been a coincidence that they struck when they did,’ I mused out loud.

You think whoever took the orb was working withthe witches?

‘Or it was the witches themselves,’ I suggested with a faint frown. Amber was my friend, and we had spent weeks together making Jess’s amulet for her wedding. If Amber knew that a witch – or the Coven Council – had stolen the werewolves’ lost orb, surely she would have said something?

But this realm held all secrets as sacred, and I wasn’t sure where our friendship fell in her list of priorities. I hoped it was high because that was where she was onmylist, but nothing in life is certain.

Could Amber be withholding a huge secret from me? Definitely.Wouldshe? I wasn’t so sure. But now was as good a time as any to find out.

Chapter 10

Amber answered gruffly on the second ring. ‘DeLea.’

‘Hey, Amber, how are you?’

‘I’m … okay. And you?’

‘I’m all right. Things are a bit dicey here.’

‘No doubt. Stay on your guard,’ she advised. Were those simply kind words of advice or something more? A true warning because she knew witches were gunning for me?

I hesitated over what to say next. ‘What?’ she asked as the silence drew out. ‘What don’t you want to say, Lucy?’

She was too astute by half and I chuckled ruefully. ‘You know me too well. Listen, have you ever heard of the werewolves’ orb or the Sea Rock?’

‘Sure,’ she said and I sensed her shrug. ‘Every scholar has. Its theft has been credited with the downfall of the werewolves.’

I grimaced. We might be on a lower rung of the Other realm’s power ladder but we weren’tdownfallen.‘Right. Right. So, you haven’t … like … seen it?’

When she replied, she sounded amused. ‘Seen the missing magical pearl of the werewolves? What – you think I have it in my cupboard?’ She snorted.

‘No, but it was taken around the same time as the witches cursed the werewolves. I wondered if the Coven Council had it.’

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